Find yourself fighting a never-ending battle with screen time day after day? Worried that your children might become ACTUAL zombies from video game overload? Well, parental units, have I got a surprise for you! These FREE printable Screen Bucks are are a fun and fuss-free way to for kids to earn and redeem screen time!
What Are Screen Bucks?
What are Screen Bucks, you say? Well, friend, these screen bucks are a totally awesome screen time management device! They are your kid’s very own money that they can use to “buy” screen time each day.
For those of you who speak 90’s: They’re da bomb, all that and a bag of chips, and totally tubular. And after using them for a couple months, I can attest to their complete awesomeness. Have I convinced you yet?
Yes?! Scroll down to the bottom of this post to get this printable sent straight to your inbox! You made the right decision!
No? Very well, read on.
Each printable comes with colored screen bucks in differing minute amounts, including 5-minute, 10-minute, 15-minute, 30-minute, and 60-minute bucks. You’ll also get some fun colored labels to clip or attach to each child’s bucks to keep track of them.
Managing Screen Time with Screen Bucks
The great thing about Screen Bucks is how versatile they are. You can really make them work for you and however you like to manage screen time at home.
Need some more tips on managing screen time? Check out my post on How to Limit Screen Time for awesome tips! I highly recommend setting daily limits, implementing no screen days (to help stave off the children turning total zombie), and setting small digital timers to help your entire family better manage screen time.
Finally, making screen time management fun instead of a daily battle (enter: Screen Bucks!) will help to decrease the stress around screen time and make you less likely to want to throw all the video game consoles out the window!
How to Make Screen Bucks
Ready to get your hands on these awesome bucks? I don’t blame you. Your kids are gonna LOVE them. Here’s the how-to on making these screen bucks. As my 7-year-old would say, “They’re a piece of cake, but don’t eat them!”
- Download the printable. Fill out the form below under the heading “Screen Bucks Printable,” and we’ll send the bucks straight to your email inbox to download.
- Print. I recommend printing these on cardstock (I used 65 pound cover weight card stock for these bucks). For the most crisp image, select a high quality print output in your printer settings when printing.
- Cut. While you can most certainly cut these out with good ol’ scissors, using a paper cutter makes quick work of the project. Just think of all the time you can spend getting into online arguments with strangers instead of cutting!
- Laminate (optional). If your kids are anything like mine, they’re perpetually sticky and they get fingerprints on EVERYTHING. (Like seriously, how are they always covered in jam when we don’t even have any jam around!?). Laminating these using an at-home thermal laminator (check out how affordable these are!) will seriously extend their life. That, or be prepared to print some extras for when these get left outside in a snowstorm (1st hand experience here).
- Use! Get to it! Watch as your children suddenly become EXTREMLY motivated by these screen bucks. They’re downright magical.
How to Use Screen Bucks
Now that you have your beautiful screen bucks prepped and ready to go, here’s some suggestions on how to use them:
- Provide your kid with ways to earn them. Decide the best way for your child to earn these bucks. We decided our kids can earn them for doing various “extra” activities around the house, like doing some deep cleaning of their rooms, feeding the animals each day, etc.
- Make screen bucks a part of weekly allowance. If you don’t want to have your children “earn” their screen time, but prefer it to be a part of daily life, you can provide screen bucks at the end of each week to have them manage the following week. This is a great way to teach children time management skills!
- Pay your child. However you decide your child will earn their bucks, make sure you “pay” your kid some screen bucks as they earn them. I suggest keeping them in the same place (like an envelope or on the fridge) so they don’t get misplaced.
- Redeem for screen time! After some trial and error, we determined that it’s not really worth it to redeem screen bucks for anything less than 15 minutes at a time, so my kids like to stock up on their bucks and cash in when they can play a game or watch some TV.
As with anything you read or make from Bring Wit On, I encourage you to find what works best for you and your family. Print these Screen Bucks and make them work for you!
Screen Bucks Printable
Ready to get your hands on these bucks? Simply complete the form below and we’ll send the download straight to your inbox!
Improve Screen Time Management with Screen Bucks!
It can be difficult to manage screen time day after day with kids who are insistent upon playing for JUST FIVE MORE MINUTES, but these screen bucks are here to help! They’re a quick and easy printable that you can give to your children to help them learn how to more effectively manage the time they spend on screens each day.
Looking for more goodies to help you master parenting? Parenting small humans who often look and act like velociraptors can be STRESSFUL, but Bring Wit On is in your corner! We’re here to give you the ultimate pep talk (no you are NOT a stinky poopypants like your 3-year-old claims!), provide you with some much-needed wit, (#puns4eva), and get you off the parenting struggle bus once and for all! Check out all our free printables on the site and make sure to subscribe to our Instagram page for memes, weekly adulting tips, and more!
Great idea. Our kids have to earn screen time, but I like how this option teaches them about money at the same time.